Metal-detector enthusiast unearths $5.5 million in gold

FilamCoins

LONDON (Reuters Life!) – The largest haul of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered, unearthed by a metal-detector enthusiast in a farmer's field, has been valued at 3.28 million pounds ($5.5 million) by a committee of experts.

The Staffordshire Hoard, found by Terry Herbert in central England in July, comprises over 1,500 mainly gold and silver items thought to date back to the 7th century.

Under Treasure Trove laws, the money will be split between the finder, Herbert, and the landowner, Fred Johnson.

The find has been compared in importance to the spectacular Sutton Hoo burial site, a huge ship grave in eastern England excavated in 1939.

The cache comprises sword-hilts, fragments of gold helmets, some elaborately decorated, and other pieces of weaponry inlaid with precious stones.

The two museums which hope to acquire the hoard, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum, along with the finder and the landowner, have all approved the valuation.

A dozen or so items from the hoard have gone on show at the British Museum in London. Hundreds of people queued for hours when a small selection of items were displayed in Birmingham earlier this year.

SYRACUSIAN

That's better than winning the lottery.

It always strikes me that the government of Britain does not claim any part of these findings. In Greece they would have been seized by the Archeological Services, citizens can't claim such finds, they belong to the State.Then again, metal detecting is probably illegal too.


No matter what one thinks of what legislation is more fair, this recently found National Treasure is now free to be sold and exported from Britain, with two local museums, hoping to acquire part of them, and the British museum only temporarily borrowing a dozen of them. Some important items should stay were they belong, but it sounds like an oxymoron to the British Museum's hard line on the subject,and whose main expositions rely on items taken or looted from other countries.

farthing

While they may be sold to individuals instead of a museum, it is also quite likely that whoever buys them will not be able to remove them from Great Britain.

When Allan Davisson bought the King Coenwulf of Mercia gold penny in October 2004 for $400,000+ he was the legal owner but was not allowed to remove it from Great Britain. He did eventually arrange the sale of the penny to an English museum a few years later when the museum had raised the money.

Edit: And yes, I feel that the Elgin Marbles belong back in Greece.

7Jaguars

Please lets not go there with the Elgin marbles thing. Greece may be a bit more stable now but went through enormous turmoil and this world patronage was probably maintained or saved by England. I think this repatriation thing is completely out of hand and think only of the way those Turks handled the Dekadrachmas, not to mention what kind of looting used to go on after the Brits left Cyprus as another example. I really get sick of it, and think sleeping dogs need to stay just where they are.

Sapyx

Old thread from when this hoard was found.

SYRACUSIAN

<< <i>Please lets not go there with the Elgin marbles thing. Greece may be a bit more stable now but went through enormous turmoil and this world patronage was probably maintained or saved by England. I think this repatriation thing is completely out of hand and think only of the way those Turks handled the Dekadrachmas, not to mention what kind of looting used to go on after the Brits left Cyprus as another example. I really get sick of it, and think sleeping dogs need to stay just where they are. >>





Museum's ready to handle their repatriation now. And public opinion has switched on the matter. If it's not my imagination, Le Louvre recently returned some major items to Egypt. As for Lord Elgin, it was precisely with the Turkish sultans of the time that he struck a deal to remove the marbles, a few years later it would have been impossible.


But I understand that it's a touchy subject. And I didn't know the backstory on that penny that farthing posted.

IloiloKano

Just to stir the pot...

I wish Great Britain had removed the giant buddhas from the mountainside and put them in a museum a hundred years ago.

7Jaguars

Yes, I think that was my point & that is the Brits HAVE done a great job of conserving these artifacts. Perhaps they did "take their perogative" in obtaining these items - many were bought, but nowhere else have museums taken the care they have of ancient bits. If you doubt that, go to the British Museum and see for yourself or even the provincial museums & compare to the old National Museum in Athens or even the museum in Cairo now.
Just because Greeks or others have built museums in the last couple of years does not mean they automatically deserve whatever they can intimidate out of the current custodians.
Maybe Greece can go back and take from Italy what Sulla removed (or retroactively calculate the value of it anyway) in the 1st C. BC because that was probably a lot more valuable than the Elgin Marbles, and they can just call any Greek items in Italian museums their cultural "property". Or better yet I believe the value of items that Alexander took back from Persia can be calculated and they can reimburse Iran for what he took!Honestly, time to relax on that and take care of what they do have.

BTW, most of the Louvre Egyptian collection was from Naoleon's time when he specifically went to Egypt to take artifacts (amongst other goals). Don't know that there were too many sales contracts with the Egyptians & to the best of my recollection he just took what he liked.

ColinCMR

AWESOME!

That's a great story! Good to hear that there was public interest right away also!

SYRACUSIAN

Noone is contesting that the British Museum did a great job to the world's cultural heritage, and also became probably the world's finest museum because of what it held.


Just because Greeks or others have built museums in the last couple of years does not mean they automatically deserve whatever they can intimidate out of the current custodians.


Greece intimidate Britain? But the current custodians could loot whatever they could, especially as a protective power (of Greece) that had a major role in the forthcoming revolution and liberation from the Ottomans. I give with one hand, I take with the other...

If these marbles were initially sculpted to be exhibited in Britain, there would be no contest. Italy and the Turkish coast can keep everything because it was built when they were colonized. But the Parrthenon marbles ,
were not meant for Britain and there was no valid reason to remove them at the time. It was Lord Elgin's removal,
and the British museum's older awkward efforts to clean and restore them that damaged them more than centuries while they were still on the Parthenon.

To each his opinion I guess, I'm not engaging here.